Letters to the Editor

Obama's first 100 days did enormous damage

Obama's first 100 days did enormous damage to our entire intelligence community. Morale at the spy agency is low because of the relentless assault on the Central Intelligence Agency in Obama's first 100 days.

The first blow to the CIA was his decision to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without any plan on what to do with the 240 dangerous enemy combatants housed there. Many CIA employees believe these people to be killers, and the Obama plan to set some of these people loose in the United States came despite CIA objections.

Many in the CIA see this as a betrayal. And then came the president's decision to release the so-called "torture memos" and the disavowal of CIA interrogation methods. Obama then delegated to the attorney general whether to prosecute the Bush-era lawyers who wrote the so called "torture memos." Obama's actions have added to the already great doubt about the safety and security of CIA interrogators' jobs, and more.

Obama's actions are reminiscent of the Clinton years when the U.S. intelligence operations were decimated and demoralized and led to a severe lack of intelligence-gathering capability prior to the 9/11 attacks on America. Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is also complicit by propelling the inquisition of the CIA interrogations. Pelosi's incompetence and her damage to our intelligence-gathering ability may be fatal to many Americans.

The Democrats utter disregard for the safety and intelligence-gathering capability of the United States of America is breathtaking.

BILL JOHNSTON

Carson City

Shunning president embarrassment to state

I find it interesting that so many, including our governor, are so quick to remember a campaign comment, yet don't actually remember what it was about.

Let me refresh their memories.

At the time (now) President Obama stated, "You can't get corporate jets ... You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas, or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime."

He did not single out Las Vegas. The country was up in arms about out-of-control corporate spending. General Motors executives had flown jets to meetings where they asked for money, PNC Financial Group had arranged some high-dollar trips to the Super Bowl and Wells Fargo was about to send a group of people to a Las Vegas resort for a retreat " right after the American people gave them bailout money.

If an expensive retreat to New York had been in the makings at the time, he would have mentioned it, too. Perhaps high-dollar company trips to Las Vegas did get canceled. I hope so, because those trips would have been paid by taxpayer money, too. How is it that a governor who is so publicly against taxes and government waste is so contrary to our president's statement that we cannot condone and pay for company retreats?

Oh, I know, we have a word for that: Hypocrisy. I realize that Las Vegas is hurting economically. So is the rest of the country. But blaming it on Obama is ridiculous and petty; and shunning him is an embarrassment to Nevada.

KAREN STAFFEN

Carson City